Pinterest: Beloved by Women, Run by Men

Pinterest, by most every account, is a female-dominated social network. One recent report found that its user base is as much as 80 percent female. Not only that, but women are making 92 percent of the pins. 92 percent!

It turns out, however, that this social network, beloved by women, is pretty much run by men – just like every other tech company you probably use on a daily basis.

Pinterest has joined the ranks of tech companies going transparent on their diversity (or lack thereof) numbers. Pinterest has revealed that the total company is 60 percent men. When you focus in on leadership positions, the company is 81 percent male.

"We’re not close to where we want to be, but we’re working on it," says software engineer and tech lead Tracy Chou. "Our vision is to help people live inspired lives—people across the world, from all walks of life. We only stand to improve the quality and impact of our products if the people building them are representative of the user base and reflect the same diversity of demography, culture, life experiences and interests that makes our community so vibrant."

Also, in terms of ethnicity, Pinterest is 50 percent White, 42 percent Asian, two percent Hispanic, and one percent Black.

As I mentioned above, Pinterest has joined a long line of tech companies in the diversity transparency. Pinterest's diversity looks to be a little better than Google, Facebook, Yahoo, or Twitter – the latter of which just released their numbers on Thursday.

But that's not really saying a lot. Twitter is 70 percent male (79 percent in leadership), as is Google. Facebook is 69 percent male, while Yahoo is 62 percent.

"Without measurement and transparency, it’s impossible to have honest conversations about making tech more inclusive," says Chou.

True. And these reports, while distressing, at least get the conversation started – and that's helpful. What might not help Pinterest is the fact that they just hired the guy behind Axe's ad campaign – which some call sexist – to head the marketing department.